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Ann Arbor, MI — Coming off their bye week last week, Michigan had an extra week to prepare for the Michigan State Spartans. That extra week seemed to have not been enough for the Wolverines as they started the game poorly with three penalties in less than five minutes. They could clean their act up as the game progressed, but it wasn’t a pretty start for the Wolverines.
After both teams traded punts, Michigan would get a drive going and land at the 40-yard line on fourth down. After an incomplete pass from quarterback Shea Patterson to wide receiver Nico Collins, MSU would get the football and have a solid drive led by their quarterback Brian Lewerke.
Lewerke would find wide receiver Cody White on fourth and one as he would go 29 yards before being tackled at the one. The next play Lewerke found fullback Max Rosenthal on a one-yard touchdown pass as MSU took the 7-0 lead.
Michigan wouldn’t let the score bother them as quarterback Shea Patterson started going on a tear as the offense opened up the playbook for their RPO. Big catches by wide receivers Collins, Donovan Peoples-Jones and Ronnie Bell helped move the ball down the field. Patterson went 4/4 on the drive for 48 yards as running back Hassan Haskins would finish the drive for a one-yard touchdown run as Michigan ties the game up 7-7.
Personal fouls by MSU killed their next drive as two on one play pushed them back and despite getting the first down, they would eventually punt back to Michigan. So far there have been three unsportsmanlike/personal penalties in this game, three by MSU, one by Michigan. This game is usually chippy so those numbers aren’t a surprise for either team.
Michigan would get the ball at their own two-yard line and in five minutes and 39 seconds and 12 plays later they would score as Patterson found tight end Nick Eubanks for the touchdown as Michigan took the 14-7 lead. Patterson made some nice reads on that drive, running the football and finding the correct man on the RPO’s.
MSU would stall out on offense again and Michigan would continue to strike. Patterson found Bell for a huge 42-yard catch to put Michigan inside the red zone. Michigan couldn’t find the end zone though as kicker Quinn Nordin would make the 28-yard field goal attempt as Michigan expanded their lead to 17-7. Nordin has been kicking every extra point and field goal so far today, so it looks like he has won the kicking job against Jake Moody.
POSITIVES:
- Michigan’s offense started slow but have been using different types of RPO plays and plays where men are in motion. That is something we haven’t seen this season as that looks like some of Josh Gattis’ “speed in space” offense he was trying to bring to Michigan. Patterson has been playing great in it so far, going 14/21 for 182 yards and a touchdown along with three carries for eight yards.
- Michigan has done well in keeping the MSU run game in check. Ignoring Lewerke’s runs, Michigan has held MSU to just 23 rushing yards on 12 attempts. MSU had some success last week running the rock but that isn’t the case so far this week.
NEGATIVES:
- MSU is doing well at running RPO against the Wolverines defense. Michigan started to figure things out, but it has still been a threat to the Wolverines defense. Lewerke is 6/10 for 79 yards and a touchdown along with five carries for 16 yards. So far as he seems to be leading this offense down the field.
- Penalties have been an early problem for Michigan as they had three in less than five minutes to start the game. So far they have had four for 41 yards and they have hurt the Wolverines greatly. They have improved at discipline in the past few weeks, but these are not what you want in this big rivalry game.